If you need a printed manual - just print one out... http://www.ismacs.net/singer_sewing_...uals/15-91.pdf it takes a bit to load - it's at least a free one

Lovely thread Miriam, I am glad you brought it back up as I hadn't found this one yet. Your girl is just like the full sized one I have...who is still sitting all gunked up waiting for me to find the time to free her! The little 3/4 was in better shape, she purrs like a kitten - I love these little machines! It is so hard to pass them up when I see them 4sale.
(and I definitely have my heart set on finding a Greyhound some day)

Joann

WOW, what a transformation~she is B.E.A.U.T.I.F.U.L.!!! Thanks for sharing her story!!!

OK. Some machines do come to my house all stuck and so NOT wanting to move the needle bar. As with this machine, I start with a visual inspection. Is there any rust? No? Ok it might just be stuck with dried up oil. Something has to dissolve the oil or soften it. A solvent will break the oil down. Heat will soften the oil. Oil will soften the oil. At first Janie would NOT budge - we dropped oil anywhere there was something that would move - friction points - look on the bottom of the machine - clean and oil there - clean and oil the top parts - anything you have any kind of access to - we slowly turned Janie as we oiled everything again. Sometimes that is enough to make the machine work. Sometimes a bit of heat will soften the oil and let it move. Use solvent with caution. Out doors, windy day, VERY, VERY careful of any paint - oil isn't the only thing solvent will dissolve - very careful of the paint and any kind of plastic - ask me how I know this... I've also seen that VERY little solvent can be enough to dissolve the dried on oil in a moving joint - there just isn't that much oil in there to begin with. Oh and Janie doesn't have plastic parts inside.

For a long time I didn't realize there were 3/4 size Japanese 15s - I have one and I think it is a keeper. It is small but it is powerful. I also have a Cinderella sewing machine. It is even smaller. My Cinderella still has issues so I don't know how she sews. She was missing some parts. She is made of stamped metal I think and she uses some Japanese 15 parts. She is very small and light weight. Mine sits in a smelly little case.

This is my Fabric clone that I love and adore and sew on as often as I can. She weighs 38 lbs and now sits in this fablous cabinet that came with my 403 (only weighs 18 lbs so is in a travel bag=portable).

you are some super smart lady, wish you lived near so I could learn from you. Thanks for all your helpful comments.leepat

I cleaned a machine yesterday - it was a Singer 401. It looked like it had been greased with a black crayon - waxy gunky grease. I scraped off as much as I could, wiped up what I could and then hit the stuck on gunk with some alcohol careful to keep it off the machine's paint. I would much rather see gunky grease and oil than rust. Once the machine was freed up it looks great and sews fantastic. Then the GKs invaded... I was hoping to post pics of the DGKs 'helping'. Two of them (ages 2 1/2 & 5 1/2) stood on an old piano bench and were working with Qtips to 'clean' that Singer 401. They got all excited when the Qtip got dirty with grease or lint. I had to define gunk. It is anything that comes off onto a Qtip... well, I guess so anyway. I'm sure the machine didn't care who swiped the gunk.

Thanks everyone. I have it moving a little bit . It has a tag "Deluxe Zig-Zag made in Japan" I will try to post a picture later today.

It can take some time to get some of them to move. Janie was the first machine I ever freed up with only Triflow. I was so amazed at how well it worked. I have another machine that was more deluxe and it was badly frozen up - more complicated, too. I was advised by Ray White that the Triflow might take a month to free things up - it freed up eventually. I oil any thing that moves. Look way up inside the machine for anything that moves - chances are that is frozen up due to either dried up oil or never had any. Under the machine - drop one drop on anything that moves. We jiggled the hand crank as we went. Some times things moved - some times not. Jiggle anyway all you need is a tiny amount of oil to get in there and lubricate - it is not the oil you see that gunks up a machine - it is the tiny little bit of dried up oil you can't see that is causing it to freeze up. Never force it. If you have plastic parts do not use heat. Heat can some times speed things up. I have a hair dryer and some times a rice bag... well not so much the rice bag. That microwave SIL has burns the rice and I had a fire going one day - the end of the rice bag... The rice bag also puts out some steam and that is not so good on the machine. You can also turn the machine on it's side or back or on end upside down - get the oil to go in those little tight places. Crank the machine some more. I rarely have to disassemble to get it to move. I do remove the bobbin area and most of the time I pull the tension out and clean and then put it back - that way I know it is right - I've seen all kinds of creative tension assembly.

The tensions for these machines have given me more fits than all the other machines combined. Here is a manual with some good help. I will give one big hint though - if you need parts get a new tension that is supposed to fit that machine. I have tried to use spare parts and didn't like the results. Sew-classic has tensions and some of the parts. I would recommend dealing with her. She is reliable and up front. Oh here is that manual. http://www.tfsr.org/pub/technical_in...echanism_2.pdf you will need the info toward the bottom: UPPER TENSION MECHANISM - (15K model) This was a lot of help - there may be holes but if you run into snags just ask - there are people who can explain things better than I can. I just do it.